Saving Ever After (Ever After #4)

by Stephanie Hoffman McManus

  “Oh.”

  “I’m so sorry, Mia. If there were any way I could postpone it or send someone else, I would. I promise I’ll make it up to you. And Sadie for missing her engagement party. You girls just pick another time and I’ll fly out and we can have our own weekend. You can show me around the campus when it’s not crowded with so many other families.”

  “Okay, that sounds nice.”

  “Okay, then, that’s settled. I really need to get back to work, but I’m glad we talked and I look forward to coming out to Boston and spending some time with you and Sadie soon. I love you Mia.”

  “Love you too, Dad,” I mumbled and then ended the call.

  He had to work. It wasn’t his fault. He couldn’t control his work.

  Those excuses did little to quell the disappointment.

  I must have really been craving more. That’s the only explanation I had for why I called my mother next. It had to have been the tenth time in the last month that I’d tried, and just like all the other times it went to voicemail.

  “Hey Mom, it’s Mia. Haven’t heard from you in a while. Guess you must be really busy. I just wanted to see if you wanted to come to parents’ weekend this Saturday and Sunday. Dad’s really busy with work and can’t make it, so I thought it would be a good opportunity for you and me to spend some time together and maybe talk a little. Well, let me know if you can make it. Hope to talk to you soon.” I exhaled a deep breath. “I love you, Mom.”

  Chapter 9

  Chris

  “What time will you guys get back in on Monday?” I asked Ace as he carried two large suitcases to the door and set them down. He and Sadie were flying out to Seattle for the weekend to look at venues and take care of wedding planning shit.

  “I think we’re scheduled to leave Seattle around eight in the morning. That’s if all goes well and we settle on a place. Sadie’s talked to most of them over the phone and thinks she has it narrowed down to four, but we’ll see.”

  “Don’t say it like that.” Sadie appeared with one smaller bag in her hands. “You make it sound like I’m incapable of making up my mind.”

  Ace just chuckled, “Well, babe . . .”

  She narrowed her eyes at him and shoved her bag into his chest. He let out a soft oomph and laughed again.

  “Just for that, I think I’ll make you look at the fifth place I thought I ruled out. I might have missed something online, and I’m sure I need to see it in person to really make an informed decision.”

  “You can drag me to fifty places if that’s what it takes for you to find the one that’s going to make you the happiest,” he told her. Her face softened and she leaned into him to place a light kiss on his lips.

  “I don’t think I really need to look at that fifth place,” she whispered against his mouth and then kissed him again before pulling back and sighing, “I just want our wedding to be . . .”

  “Perfect,” he finished for her.

  “Yeah, is that silly?”

  “Not at all. I want to give you whatever you want.”

  “As long as I’m marrying you, then I’ve got it,” she replied. “But we better get going, or we’ll be late for our flight.”

  Ace looked at me, “You know where Ivy’s food is. Remember, just one scoop in the mornings and one in the evenings or she’ll get fat. And don’t feed her too late, and thanks man for taking care of her.”

  “No problem,” I told him. “Have a good trip and I’ll see you guys when you get back.”

  “And make sure you take her outside and play with her,” Sadie added before Ace dragged her out the door.

  “I will,” I called after them and then shut the door. Ivy was lying on the floor, big, sad eyes fixed on the door her Mom and Dad just walked out. It was like she could sense when they were leaving for more than a couple hours, and she let out a soft whine.

  “They’ll be back girl,” I said. “But it’s just you and me this weekend. Come on,” I smacked my hand against my leg to call her after me as I made my way into the living room. She followed and then plopped down at my feet when I settled onto the couch and flipped the Tv on.

  I was actually looking forward to a quiet weekend and the house all to myself. Katrina was in California doing a photo shoot, which meant I was probably just going to kick back with a couple beers, whatever junk food I could find in the house and watch movies and play video games most of the weekend. I shot Spade a text, asking if he wanted in, but he replied that he was going to visit his sister for the weekend.

  More beer for me.

  Ivy gave a little whine and stared up at me like she’d already figured out my plan and wasn’t impressed.

  I sighed, “Okay girl, then what do you think of going for a hike tomorrow?” Even though fall was in full swing, the temperatures were still warm enough that it would be a good weekend to spend some time outdoors. She continued to look up at me for a minute before dropping her head to rest on her paws. I took that as a yes. I kicked back, grabbing my controller, and powered on the X-box.

  I’d just lined my gun up for the final head shot to end the match, when Beyonce started singing through my phone. I told Katrina not to set that damn ringtone, but she’d done it anyway. The distraction was just enough to cause me to lose the shot. I actually debated letting it ring and calling her back after I’d won, but then I sighed, pausing the game, and I reached for the phone.

  “Babe, your timing sucks,” I answered.

  “Oh please, don’t tell me you were in the middle of some video game.”

  I just chuckled, but that was answer enough for her.

  “You better not just sit around playing video games all weekend, Christian.” Her tone was somewhere in between annoyed and amused.

  “That’s exactly what I plan on doing,” I informed her. She was probably able to hear me smiling.

  “You’re pathetic,” she laughed. “I just called to tell you my flight made it and I checked into my hotel.”

  I looked at my watch doing the math and figuring that it was three in the afternoon in California. “What do you have planned for the rest of the day?” I asked her.

  “I’m meeting the people in charge of the shoot for dinner, so I’ll probably grab a shower and maybe a quick nap before then, but I won’t be out late. I have an early morning, and the shoot will likely go all day tomorrow and Sunday. I’ll try to call you when I have breaks, but don’t worry if you don’t hear from me. Chances are, I’ll be passed out in my room from exhaustion.”

  “Nice try, I know you’ll spend the whole weekend lounging around in the sun by the pool. You’re not fooling me,” I teased her.

  “I wish.”

  I laughed. “Well don’t work too hard, get a little sunshine while you’re there and have fun trying to keep a bunch of models in line,” I told her.

  She groaned, “Thanks.”

  “I’ll see you when you get back on Monday, babe.”

  “I’m serious about the video games, Chris.”

  “What was that? Couldn’t hear you very well, are you going through a tunnel?”

  “Very funny. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

  I ended the call grinning, and picked my controller back up. This time when I had my target lined up in my sights, I took the shot and the win.

  Two beers and three victories later, I heard someone coming in the front door. Ivy immediately bolted into the entryway, barking her greeting. I wondered if Spade had changed his mind about joining me for the weekend. He still had his key from before he moved out, and he was the only person I could think of who would just show up. I watched the doorway of the living room, waiting for him to appear, and was surprised when it was Mia’s much smaller frame that stepped into view. She saw me and froze.

  “Oh, sorry for just letting myself in, I didn’t realize anyone would be here,” she said.

  “I live here,” I reminded her.

  “Sadie told me you live with your girlfriend,” she said, almost defensively. I hadn
’t seen Mia since the night of the engagement party, and I could tell she wasn’t thrilled to see me here.

  “I stay there occasionally, but she’s out of town for the weekend and I’m taking care of Ivy while Ace and your sister are gone. What about you? What are you doing here if you thought everyone was going to be gone?” I eyed the small suitcase sitting beside her. She obviously meant to stay, but why? What did she have planned, and better question, did I even really want to know?

  “Sadie gave me a key a while ago and said I was welcome whenever,” she explained, avoiding answering my question.

  “I didn’t ask how you got in, Mia. I have no doubt your sister gave you a key. I asked why you’re here, instead of at your dorm.”

  “Oh, well I just wanted to get away for the weekend. I have a couple tests coming up and thought this would be a good, quiet place to study without distraction. If you want me to go, I can.” I wasn’t sure if I bought her excuse, but she looked so crestfallen at the idea of having to leave.

  “No, your sister said you’re welcome here and you are. Make yourself at home,” I sighed, thinking about the turn my weekend had just taken. Having Mia here meant no walking around the house in my boxers, and I doubted she would appreciate me blasting my music and monopolizing the Tv with my video games. I was also rethinking stocking the fridge full of beer. The last thing she needed was any temptation and I didn’t want to deal with another drunken Mia.

  “Okay, then I guess I’ll go take my stuff to one of the guest rooms.” She moved toward the back of the house and I noticed she only had the one small bag with her. It didn’t look like it could hold much more than a few items of clothing, which meant it was doubtful that she had any text books or even a computer in there. It was possible she had another bag in her car. I turned my attention back to my game, readying for another match.

  An hour passed and I hadn’t seen or heard from Mia since she disappeared down the hall. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad having her here if she stayed shut up in the room studying the whole time. Although, I still had my doubts about the excuse she’d given for being here.

  I got up to go raid the kitchen for food, and found a couple of pizzas in the freezer. I started to take one out and then realized Mia might be hungry as well. I went looking for her to ask, and found her in the same guest room she’d occupied the very first time she’d stayed here.

  It was the room across from mine and for some reason that I couldn’t even explain, it bothered me that she would be sleeping just across the hall from me. I would have preferred if she’d claimed one of the rooms upstairs. It would be so much easier to ignore her presence if she wasn’t right across the hall from me, and everything in me was telling me to keep my distance from her.

  The door to her room wasn’t shut all the way, so when I rapped my knuckles against the wood, it fell open, exposing Mia sitting on the bed, seemingly just staring at the wall until she looked over at me. There were no books spread out on the bed, no computer open on the desk, nothing to indicate that she’d been doing . . . well anything. The small suitcase lay empty at the foot of the bed, so I knew she’d already put away its contents.

  “You don’t have a backpack,” I said.

  “Huh?”

  “How are you supposed to study if you didn’t bring any books or a computer?”

  “Maybe I planned to use the computer in the media room, or maybe I’m taking philosophy and I’m just supposed to be thinking about the meaning of life.”

  “Are you taking philosophy, Mia?”

  “No,” she answered, looking away.

  “Have you just been sitting in here the whole time?”

  She shrugged.

  “What are you really doing here, Mia?”

  She remained quiet for a minute before looking over to meet my questioning gaze. “It’s Parents’ Weekend,” she admitted softly. “Since mine couldn’t be bothered to show up, I just didn’t really feel like hanging around the campus with all the other freshmen and their families.” She averted her eyes, but I could tell she was embarrassed about sharing that.

  My chest tightened for a moment, and ignoring her presence here suddenly didn’t seem possible. “You hungry?” I asked her. Her brow furrowed slightly, but she nodded her head. “I was just about to cook some pizzas. You don’t have to stay cooped up in here. Why don’t you come out and we can eat and watch Tv or something.”

  “Okay,” she said, seeming relieved, and then she hopped up off the bed and followed me out toward the living room. I made a detour into the kitchen to throw the pizzas in the oven before joining her. Surprisingly, she was on the couch with my controller in her hand, looking through my game stats.

  “You play?” I asked her doubtfully.

  “Well enough to kick your ass if you’ve got another controller,” she grinned up at me. Her cockiness caught me off guard for a moment before I laughed.

  “Oh, you’re on.” I retrieved a second controller and handed it to her, taking mine back. I got it set up for multiplayer, almost feeling bad for how I was about to slaughter her. I wasn’t one to go easy on someone, not even a girl, especially not after she’d talked smack.

  Fifteen minutes later, I was sitting on the couch in stunned silence, holding my controller and wondering what the fuck had just happened.

  “It’s okay, don’t feel bad Chris. You did pretty well. You almost had me there at the end,” she smiled patronizingly and patted my back while I just glared back at her. She hadn’t just won, she’d annihilated me. More than once, and she was lying when she said I almost had her at the end.

  “Who the fuck are you?” I asked her incredulously. “I almost never lose at that game.” I couldn’t even remember the last time I lost. I was good. Video games were my thing, besides drumming. All of the guys played, but none of them played as much as I did.

  “I had to have something to do every time my mother grounded me to my room. And she grounded me a lot,” she said with a playful smirk and amused twinkle in her eye.

  “Well shit, do you play any other games?”

  “Bring on whatever you’ve got,” she challenged, but before I could swap games, the timer on the oven beeped.

  “When we’re done eating, you’re going down,” I told her.

  “Like I said, bring it.”

  She was a competitive little shit, but so was I. I didn’t even let her make it through her second slice of pizza before I was telling her to put it down and pick up her controller. I was determined to redeem myself.

  She just chuckled, took another bite and then set her plate on the coffee table and confidently snatched the controller back up.

  There was a reason she was so confident.

  It didn’t matter what game I put in, she kicked my ass. Just when I’d think I had the upper hand, she’d come out of nowhere and blow my damn mind, and usually my head off. For every match or round I won, she won three, and I think sometimes she was actually taking it easy on me to spare my ego.

  “How the hell did you just do that?” I asked her at one point when she seemed to transport from one part of the game to another.

  She grinned and chewed her lips like she had a secret she was debating letting me in on. “There’s a glitch in the game, kind of like secret section or another dimension right on top of the game. It basically allows you to ghost through parts of the game before it spits you back out. That’s why you didn’t see me coming.”

  “Shit, how did you figure that out?” I asked. I’d been playing this game for months now since it came out and hadn’t discovered it.

  She just grinned and shrugged. “I just stumbled across it.” I doubted that. It had to be hard to find if not everyone knew about it. “You ready to give up and admit defeat?” She asked.

  “Not happening,” I said.

  Eventually I got so tired of her kicking my ass at every game we played, that I switched it over so that we were on the same team. A couple hours must have passed of us just sitting there in front o
f the Tv, and not once did she complain about my competitiveness, or ask if we could turn it off. Her own competitive streak matched mine, and she was funny as hell when she really got into the game. Some of the comments she made had me busting up laughing. It felt more like I was playing with Ace or Spade than an eighteen year old girl. I never would have expected that gaming fell into her interests between shopping and partying.

  “Damn, you can’t tell Jaxyn I said this, but you’re my new favorite girl to game with,” I admitted when I was finally ready to call it quits. She was lethal, and she made our team unstoppable.

  She smiled and looked over at me, “Jax plays?”

  “Not really. She tries, but mostly we use her as a distraction,” I laughed and Mia looked confused, but I didn’t bother explaining. I just shut down the console and flipped it back to regular TV. She snatched the remote from me and started scrolling through the guide, landing on an old episode of The Walking Dead. Again she surprised me, and my expression must have showed it.

  “What? I like Daryl,” she said.

  “Let me guess, you cried like a baby when they killed Beth?”

  “No . . . okay, maybe a little, but that was so sad.”

  I just laughed, “That’s the show.”

  “Yeah, it’s really damn depressing, but I just can’t quit watching.”

  “Me too, although, Katrina doesn’t like it, so I usually make sure I’m here on Sunday nights.”

  “Zombies aren’t her thing?” She asked, trying to come across more disinterested than she really was. It was the reminder I needed that Mia wasn’t one of the guys and Katrina wasn’t a subject that I needed to get into with her.

  “Not really,” was all I said.

  “Oh. She’s a photographer, right?”

  “Mmhmm.”

  “She must travel a lot.”

  “She does. It’s one of the reasons we’re so good together. She gets what it’s like, so she doesn’t get on me about being gone so much. We’re together when we can be, but we both have our careers and independence.”